Doolittle Raid - 70 Years Later

Surprised no one mentioned it yesterday but that was the 70th anniversary of the famed Doolittle raid in 1942. Only 4 months after Pearl Harbor and a string of setbacks in the Pacific, sixteen volunteer crews flew their Mitchell B-25s off the pitching deck of the USS Hornet and demonstrated to the Japanese their homeland was not immune from attack.

Althought little damage of substance was delivered, the raid caused the Imperial Japanese Command to divert assets for homeland defense and delivered a badly needed bit of good news to the American public.

Photo below of a diorama at the US Air Force Museum at Dayton, OH recreating the scene on the deck of the Hornet.

Five original members of the raid still survive today and deserve a heartfelt thanks from a grateful nation.

It sucks I was busy the last couple of days. I really wanted to go see the planes. It is pretty cool to see a bunch of WWII planes flying around. My wife called me to let me know she was watching bombers flying around yesterday at her work.

"We Remember"

I don't recall ever seeing anything on the Japanese mental response to the the Doolittle Raid. I think there was mention of them pulling defenses back to the homeland. But, did it change their vision of, or understanding of, Americans? Did they ask the question, "What sort of people would do such at thing?" I also wonder what the Germans thought about it.

Wish I'd had known about this earlier, I could've gone and seen it. At the very least I could've posted some videos of it on YouTube that didn't look like they were taken by a 10 year old with Parkinsons.

I saw Panchito twice before, one at the Reading WW-II weekend show, and one at the Pittsburgh Airshow. Reading had THREE B-17 bombers the first year I went, that was pretty cool.

Reading had THREE B-17 bombers the first year I went, that was pretty cool.

I was still living in WA state when Boeing had a 50th anniversary event for the B-17. They had four of them come in (there are only 10 left in flyable condition after the loss of Liberty Bell last summer).

I'll never forget seeing/hearing 12 Wright R-1820s firing up and rumbling as they taxied out and took off.

Interstate 5 overlooks Boeing Field from a bluff and the Washington State Patrol warned motorists it was illegal to stop on the shoulder of the freeway except for emergency. I guess several hundred people decided to have emergencies that day as they pulled over to watch a unique event.

Our CL club lost a member a few years ago who assembled the control yoke on the B-17 during WWII.

I got the opportunity to actually pilot one of the B-25s participating this week. It was 23 years ago and the plane was The Guardian Of Freedom. At the time it was owned by a retired Air force Colonel, Glenn Lamont. He was based in Detroit but he had friends in Akron and during one his visits to Akron Fulton Airport, I managed to get a chance to fly. When I showed up at the airport little did I know that I would be the co-pilot for that flight. It was a memory of a lifetime to be able to have my hands on the controls of that beautiful twin engine bomber.